In Services as Code, rather than manually configuring an ACI fabric, the intended configuration is represented in YAML files and stored in a code repository. With these configuration files centrally stored in a version-controlled system, modifications can be easily made by to the source of truth, similar to the process used in software development. SaC then uses the configuration file to apply the desired changes to the ACI fabric.
SaC also provides a mechanism to validate the YAML configuration files. It checks for syntactical and semantic errors in the configuration files, and has integrated testing capabilities to validate the configuration changes after they are applied to the ACI fabric through the APIC. These configuration verification tests are run against the ACI fabric to ensure that the configuration changes are applied as expected.
In this lab, attendees will explore the additional integration capabilities with Cisco CX Test Automation Manager (CXTM) to provide a more comprehensive testing solution. The tests executed in CXTM can address more functional, operational, destructive, and performance testing requirements. The CXTM tests can be integrated as a seperate stage in the pipeline and executed after the configuration changes are applied to the ACI fabric.
Continue to the next section to explore the SaC Gitlab repository contents.